OP THE GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 461 



end on December 6th. Here we had to anchor, being unable to reach our camp, 

 o-ndng to the strong current prevailing. The next forenoon, however, we made our 

 destination. 



" Great difficulty was experienced in embarking the labourers, the surf running very 

 high — so much so that the canoe was repeatedly upset, and the few necessaries the men 

 brought with them lost. The embarcation accompHshed on December 9th, we sailed 

 for Abingdon the following morning, and reached this island m five hours. Abingdon 

 was the last island I visited, remaining there until the 1st January, 1869, on which day 

 the sloop sailed with a cargo of ' orchilla' for Ballenita, and I left in her Abingdon 

 Island and the whole of the gi'oup for good. 



" During my stay I only found two birds' nests ; and I believe that the birds mostly 

 retire into the more elevated, shady, and cooler parts of the interior of the islands to 

 breed. One nest I found on Albemarle was shaped like a retort, and rested on the 

 branch of a bush. The other, found on Bindloe, was shaped like a cradle, and was 

 suspended from a branch." 



II. Short Account op the Literature relating to the Birds of the Galapagos. 



Prior to Mr. Darwin's visit to the Galapagos, but little notice had been taken of the 

 indigenous birds. Many of the writers who have left records of their visits to the 

 islands have made incidental observations of the birds they saw : these relate chiefly to 

 the sea-birds. They are so brief that it is only by the light of the positive knowledge 

 we now possess of the birds that these incidental notices can be interpreted. 



The literature of the ornithology of the Galapagos, therefore, may be said to have 

 commenced with Mr. Darwin's visit. During his celebrated voyage in H.M.S. ' Beagle,' 

 thirty-four days were spent in the archipelago, the chief islands touched at being 

 Chatham, Charles, Albemarle, and James. The birds collected by Mr. Darwin were 

 briefly characterized by Mr. Gould in the ' Proceedings ' of this Society for 1837, 

 and were subsequently more fully described by Mr. Darwin himself in the third Part 

 of the 'Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle.' Unfortunately, at the time of his 

 visit, Mr. Darwin did not fully appreciate the peculiar distribution of the bird-fauna 

 throughout the difierent islands, and the particular island where each specimen was 

 obtained was not always noted at the time. Enough, however, was recorded to form a 

 basis for deductions, the importance of which in their bearing upon the study of natural 

 science has never been equalled. 



Subsequent observations tend to show that Mr. Darwin's views as to the exceedingly 

 restricted range of many of the species must be considerably modified. On the other 

 hand, the exploration of more of the islands has led to the discovery of other and 

 highly interesting species which there is every ground for supposing are not generally 

 distributed over all the islands of the archipelago. Mr. Darwin records having obtained 

 thirty-seven species of birds during his stay. 



